About three quarters of my students chose to write a "letter to George" and received an average score of 3 on the grading rubric. Those who enjoy drawing and are spatially talented chose to design a poster. What I found (not surprisingly) was that all my students, with the exception of one, completed the assessment. The one that did not seemed to loose her stamina and decided to take a lower score rather than complete her test.

I'd like to hear from you with any questions or comments you may have about working with reluctant learners who struggle in ELA and how you are doing your best to reach and teach all of them!

Test Results

High Expectations: Test Results

Summative Assessment for Of Mice and Men: Academic Choice

Summative Assessment for Of Mice and Men: Academic Choice

Unit 9: Of Mice and Men
Lesson 15 of 15

Objective: SWBAT analyze how complex characters in the text in Of Mice and Men interact with other characters and advance the plot or develop the theme by answering questions on a summative assessment.

We've spent a lot of time in this unit analyzing characters and the focus of the Unit Test is on character development and how it advanced the plot RL.9-10.3. For the activator I want to check for prior knowledge and create a mindset for today's summative assessment. I first hand out a plot summary sequence list. Those students that complete this activity before the end of the warm up activity, are given a second quick assessment (sponge activity) on finding examples of the literary devices Steinbeck used in his novella, RL.9-10.4 .

As students work on their quick assessments, I circulate among them checking and correcting papers as they are completed.

Resources (1)

Resources

It's now time for my students to demonstrate what they've learned by completing the summative assessment, UNIT TEST Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The assessment is down loaded onto Socrative. To match their preferred learning style and increase engagement, students are given the choice of either writing their answers on a hard copy of the the test or using their lap tops to go onto Socrative.com to type in their answers. As they begin I circulate among them checking for understanding and keeping them focused on the task.

When students complete the 8 text dependent questions on the first section RL.9-10.1, they then choose to answer the second section by either writing a letter from Lennie to George, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, W.9-10.3 or designing a movie poster W.9-10.9, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.2. I have the materials for making the poster laid out on a table in the front of the classroom.

Resources (1)

Resources

I ask those students who designed a poster to voluntarily share it with the class by giving a brief explanation of the information they included. Students who have not completed the letter or poster can do so for homework and hand it into me on the following day.

Resources (1)

Resources

I attached two videos. The first video is a short reflection of this final lesson as well as reflection of my year. I found it interesting that I'm ending the year sharing with you the importance of building trust an respect between you and your students because this was the focus of my lessons at the beginning of the year. The second is a short video of my teacher/student relationship according to one of my students who use his hands to communicate the message!

I really appreciate all of the lessons that you have shared for the Novella Of Mice and Men. I have saved all of them to my favorites but am wondering if you could let me know at what point in the book that you used each lesson.